Post Top Ad

2/01/2018

W’BANK GIVES NIGERIA NEW STRATEGY TO GROW POWER TRANSMISSION GRID

The federal government on Tuesday
took delivery of a new strategy document – the 20-year Transmission Expansion

Master Plan, developed with funding from the World Bank by a German-based power
consultancy firm, Fitchner GmbH, and with which the Transmission Company of
Nigeria (TCN) would use to continue its expansion works on Nigeria’s
transmission network.

The master plan was handed over
to the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, at a ceremony in Abuja by the
Interim Managing Director of the TCN, Mr. Usman Mohammed, after Fitchner signed
off on it.

It reportedly cost the World Bank
about $2million to execute, and was conceived in 2009 after a national load
demand study was done by another power consultancy firm, Tractebel of Belgium.

With it, Fashola, said the TCN
would be expected to continue to improve its capacity to wheel out generated
electricity in the country.

He also said that at the moment,
the transmission capacity of the TCN had grown to 7125 megawatts (MW), and that
cases of stranded power would be dealt with by the new plan.

The minister noted that future
electricity generation capacities like the 3050MW Mambilla hydro power plant
and others were factored into the plan which he added equally recommended that
Nigeria was better served by its existing 330 kilovolt (kV) transmission lines.

He said: “The government has
given the TCN a mandate to improve its capacity to deliver its responsibilities
to the Gencos and Discos. That mandate has not stood alone, it has been
followed by policy approvals, and it has been supported by a budgetary
commitment.

“That budgetary support has been
helpful. As at yesterday, with that budget, we have been able to recover 502
containers belonging to the TCN, containing equipment for transmission
expansion projects that were left at our ports.”

“Those containers have travelled
to their various intended destinations – TCN’s sites and substations, where
work has resumed. Most of the TCN sites are now busy and some have been
completed. So, that story of yesterday that TCN can only wheel 5000MW is not
true because as at December when we did TCN’s simulated capacity, it was 7125MW
and it is growing because works haven’t stopped,” he explained.

On the masterplan, he stated:
“The real story why we are here today is that there is now a plan to address
how TCN progresses. We gather to receive a 20-year transmission expansion
masterplan and we do it with all our stakeholders.

“You have heard very detailed
analysis of how this plan will become reality and even Mambilla which
construction has not started is factored in the plan, and presentations about
what each Disco would do, how the plans of the Gencos would affect what we want
to do.”

The minister added: “This is the
result of very rigorous thinking, planning and projection, and I want to thank
the interim managing director of the TCN and his team.”

Similarly, Mohammed, stated that
the masterplan was the basis on which TCN’s Transmission Rehabilitation and
Expansion Plan (TREP) was developed with supports from donor agencies like the
World Bank and Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

In their presentation of the
plan, the Fitchner team led by Dr. Oprea Liliana, a power systems operations
expert, explained that while Nigeria’s power generation grew by 6.3 per cent in
the last 40 years, it was expecting demand for and generation of power to hit
28,000MW by 2035.

It said in 2020, 2025, and 2030,
Nigeria should be generating 10,000MW, 15,000MW, and 23,000MW respectively. Out
of this, it noted that 387MW, 1540MW, 1830MW, and 2000MW would be sent to
service consumers in the West African Power Pool (WAPP) between 2020, 2025,
2030, and 2035 respectively.

It also made recommendations on
what should be done across the power value chain to keep the plan in progress
and effective, adding that on the average, Nigeria should be adding 1500MW of
electricity generation capacity to its grid annually, while expansions in gas
supply and distribution infrastructure should be in consonance.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Post Top Ad

Author Details

Templatesyard is a blogger resources site is a provider of high quality blogger template with premium looking layout and robust design. The main mission of templatesyard is to provide the best quality blogger templates which are professionally designed and perfectlly seo optimized to deliver best result for your blog.